


Part Of Your World

by puss_nd_boots



Category: the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Frottage, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:56:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puss_nd_boots/pseuds/puss_nd_boots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after a catastrophic deluge that covered nearly all of the Earth’s surface with water, more than half the human race has evolved into merfolk and are living in undersea kingdoms. The remaining people are living on what little dry land is left, scraping out a living as fishermen. The two worlds remain separate, until a not-so-little merfolk prince sees a beautiful young man on a boat, and wants to be part of his world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part Of Your World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the uruai Summer Vacation Writing Challenge. My prompt (which, admittedly, I’ve interpreted rather freely) was as follows: "Your theme is post apocalypse AU bandfic. [With picture suggesting a planet almost totally covered by water]. How would this world work? How would the Gaze boys work inside it? How will this world find Kai and Uruha?" The appearance of the Deepers toward the end of the fic, by the way, was inspired by SCREW’s Deep Six PV.

Nobody was entirely sure how the Great Deluge happened. Some said it was because the polar ice caps melted, the result of humans being far too careless with greenhouse gases. Others claimed that it just started raining over much of the world one day, and kept raining, and kept raining still – the end result of out-of-control weather patterns.

All that mattered was the end result – more than 90% of the world’s surface covered with water. This resulted in the surviving humans being jam-packed into tiny colonies on the remaining dry surfaces, fighting for space and resources. Diseases spread, people starved, the human race was in danger of dying out.

And as so often happens in cases like this, some higher force took over. Call it divine intervention, call it aliens loaning their power to humans, call it simply something buried deep in the brains of humanity knowing that change was necessary.

First, some humans started being born with a few aquatic features – webbed hands and feet, the ability to stay underwater for long periods of time. A couple of generations later, gills developed, and the legs became more tail-like. Several decades after that, the first underwater colonies were founded.

Nobody was quite sure when the first true merfolk were born, either, except suddenly there were people with tails instead of legs, who stayed underwater full-time. And then there were more of them, and more, and more still . . . until the underwater societies started believing that merfolk were the norm, that they had always been that way.

Except there were a few who kept the history, and remembered. And there were brave ones who sometimes made the journey to the surface to see the Drylanders in person, and find out for themselves that they weren’t a myth.

Because they were still up there, the small portion of the human race that hadn’t evolved – living on the remaining land, but getting their food from the sea, plying the water in their boats, sending lines and nets down to collect fish and sea plants.

Many merfolk didn’t really care about Drylanders – they were just there, like birds are just there to us. Some actively disliked them, the way they took food from merfolk and created hazards with their fishhooks and nets.

But there might, just might, be one mer creature who found those on dry land to be an endless source of fascination. And it is here that our story begins . . .

* * *

Kai swam through a school of fish, letting them lightly brush against his body as they passed. His dark green tail swished in the water, his dark brown hair floating around him, as he propelled himself toward his destination.

There were rumors of a wreck around here. This one was supposed to be a big one – yet another boat that went down in a storm. Another group of Wanderers – Drylanders who traveled from one land colony to another, satisfying their curiosity about what else might be out there.

Some of them succeeded in their quest. Many died trying. Weather patterns were not exactly predictable in this world.

He circled an outcropping of rocks, moving deeper and deeper, his eyes adjusting to the level of darkness at this sea level. Yes, there was something there, wedged between two boulders, listing to the side . . . 

Kai felt his heart pounding as he approached it – like he always did when he got near anything having to do with the obsession that had consumed him almost as long as he could remember. He looked into the twisted contraption of steel and fiberglass, scanning the interior, searching for artifacts . . .

Paydirt. There were several pieces of metal floating in there, one of them looking a bit like a tiny trident with an extra spoke or two, another like a small bowl mounted on a stick. And pieces filed to a point, looking like they were meant to be sharp.

Kai swam into the wrecked boat, grabbing at the things, running his fingers over them. These were for eating, weren’t they? Yes, he’d seen the Drylanders in the fishing boats using things like this from time to time, though mostly they’d picked up their food with two sticks.

And over there, a rounded piece of porcelain with a handle . . . a cup. He grabbed at that as well. Yes, they had to put liquid in these in order to drink it. Amazing.

He swam out of the wreck, headed back toward the colony . . . but he wasn’t going home right away. Oh, no. He had to put these items away first, and then maybe study them awhile, and the other items that he . . .

“Kai!” a voice called behind him. “Hey, Kai! Where are you going in such a big, fat hurry?”

Kai turned around, hands still clutching his treasures. There was another merfolk around his own age, cloud of pink hair drifting around his head, dark green tail swishing in the water. His face bore a rather self-satisfied look, as if he’d come from seeing a lover.

“Nowhere you’d be interested in, Aoi,” Kai said. “And I could ask you the same thing.”

“Where I’m going? Not important. But I think you can figure out where I came from,” Aoi said, swimming up so he was next to Kai. “We’re not that far away from Deep Six, you know.”

Well, that confirmed Kai’s earlier suspicions. Aoi had been seeing Kazuki, who lived in Deep Six – one of the “common-folk” settlements in this colony – for some time now. Which would be fine, if Aoi wasn’t merfolk nobility. Heck, he was only a rank below Kai.

“You realize that your family is going to go insane if they find out about your love affair,” Kai said, calmly, picking up speed a bit. His destination wasn’t too far away. If he were with anyone but Aoi, he’d be changing his route right now, swimming to a different location. He didn’t want just anyone finding out about this.

“Eh, who cares about that?” Aoi said. “The whole ranks thing is stupid, anyway. We all live under the same ocean. We all eat the same fish. Who decided that some people are leaders, and others are followers? I think we should all just hang out together and . . . hey, where the hell are we going, anyway?”

They had come to a sea wall, with a hole in one bolder – a small cave. Kai swam into it, still carrying his burden. “I’ll be right out,” he said. “You stay there.”

“Why?” Aoi said. “What’s so special about this cave?” Telling Aoi “don’t come in here” and “stay over there” was, of course, just an open invitation for him to investigate whatever it was. So after Kai disappeared into the hole, he swam in after him.

In front of him, he saw stacks and stacks of strange objects. Silver things with prongs and bowls, round and flat things, a long pole with a string attached . . . None of them were like anything used in the mer world. Why the hell would Kai have all of this?

He watched him add his new acquisitions to the pile. “Kai,” he said, “what the fuck is all this?”

Kai just picked up the pronged piece of silver, running his fingers over it lightly, as if it was something precious. “They’re from Drylanders,” he said. “They’re things that they use in their everyday lives.”

“Drylanders?” Aoi said. “Why would you collect that?”

“Haven’t you ever thought about what it’s like in their world?” Kai said. “What it would be like, living up there? Getting around by walking on . . . you know, those things they have instead of tails. Legs, that’s it!”

Aoi gave him a strange look. “Kai, where the hell did you get ideas like that?”

“I go up there,” he said. “I watch them, in their boats. I listen to them talk. I try to figure out what their lives are like. They wrap themselves in cloth to cover their bodies, but they cut it and style it in different ways. They cut their hair, too. And sometimes, they have to heat up the places where they live. Their eyes don’t adjust to light, they have to bring light in. And . . .” He sighed. “Well, I sometimes wish I was born as one of them. That’s all.”

Aoi folded his arms, leaning against the rock. “You’re a fucking prince, Kai. You have everything a guy could need right here. You know how much the people in Deep Four, Five and Six would like to have your life? Besides . . . I like it down here. We have nice scenery. We have plenty to eat. We have hotties of both genders everywhere. What the hell else could you want?”

“More,” Kai said, looking at the fork again. “I want . . . more.” He wasn’t quite sure what it was. He wasn’t really certain what he’d find on land. He just knew he wanted to experience life as One Of Them – at least for awhile.

Aoi waved a hand and started to swim out of the cave. “Suit yourself,” he said. “I know what I want out of life.”

Kai waited until the other merfok was gone. He put the fork down, slowly. Then, he swam out of the cave entrance, and pointed himself up, moving his tail rapidly.

He was going to visit the surface. He had a need to.

* * *

Uruha awoke at dawn, like he usually did. He rolled over, pulling the blankets up, wanting just a few more minutes’ sleep.

Which was a bad idea, of course. The earliest boats got the best catches of the day, and he and his partners needed to get those catches.

He sat up, yawning, rubbing the back of his head. This little fisherman’s shack – the same one he’d grown up in – was a heck of a lot quieter in the months since his mother passed away.

She’d taken out the fishing boat that was now Uruha’s every single day as long as he could remember. He’d learned everything he knew about harvesting – because that’s what it really was, they brought in edible seaweed as well as fish – from her. She’d even insisted on taking the boat out after she’d gotten sick – despite Uruha’s protests.

He stumbled toward the water closet – they were lucky, they had one of the shacks that had a basic flush toilet and a small sink and bathtub. You took baths only when you had to, though. Fresh water was precious, and had to be rationed. (The toilet, you could flush as much as you wanted – that ran on seawater).

The knock came on his door just as he was turning the sink off. He towel-dried his face and exited the bathroom – bumping onto something that was on a shelf behind the toilet as he did so. Damn box – he knocked it over all the time.

“When I’m gone,” his mother had said to him on her deathbed, “open that box. There’s a letter for you inside – an important one.”

Uruha hadn’t opened it yet. He didn’t feel ready to. Maybe it was because opening it would be the final admission that she was gone.

He made his way to the front door and opened it. There were two men around his own age, the shorter of the two wearing sunglasses, the taller with a strip of cloth tied around his nose – a memento of a run-in with a very toothy, very bitey fish.

“You’re not fucking ready yet?” the short man said. “Come on, get a move on.”

“Good morning to you too, Ruki,” Uruha mumbled. He saw a shirt and a pair of pants draped over a chair, grabbed them and pulled them on. Socks, boots, done deal. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Planning on combing that hair?” Reita said, giving his lifelong best friend a small smirk.

“No, I thought I’d use it to scare other boats away.” Well, damn, he thought he had combed it. He went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror – okay, Reita had a point. He hadn’t exactly been awake the first time.

“We need to make sure we get a lot of seaweed today,” Ruki called. “We have a deal for it.”

“What kind?” This time, Uruha grabbed a hat and jammed it on his head before Reita could say anything else.

“Tailor,” Ruki said. “Mending services.”

Uruha nodded. Even though their land colony had a system of money, it wasn’t used all that often – barter was the usual currency. Harvesters brought back fish and seaweed, tradesmen and craftsmen accepted it in return for their wares. Doctors treated the sick in exchange for dinner.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”

They exited the shack and began walking past a row of near-identical ones – squat, plain dwellings, some of them slightly larger. In front of one, a woman was boiling a huge kettle of water and throwing powders in it – the neighborhood washerwoman, one of the people who knew how to treat salt water to make it useable. Uruha gave her a wave as they passed.

The row of trade cottages was next, slightly bigger – the tailor they were doing business with today (which could come in handy for both nets and clothes), a couple of woodworkers, a metalworker. And finally, the most important part of the town – the docks.

“We’re going to follow you out,” Ruki said as he and Reita got in one boat, Uruha in the other. They all unfurled sails, turning them to the wind.

And now, came the tricky part – navigating through the hole in the sea wall. The entire town was surrounded by a high, white wall, designed to keep flood waters at bay – except for a breach just big enough for boats to get in and out. It was said that once you could get through it, you’d earned your stripes as a fisherman.

As he sailed out, Uruha found himself wondering if there was really any way to live other than the one he’d known all his life.

* * *

Kai broke the surface quietly, pausing for a moment to let his body get used to switching from gill breathing to mouth and nose breathing. It was always an odd sensation, air swirling around his mouth and nose, going down his throat.

Odd – and, in a strange way, delicious, even though it irritated his throat.

He’d gotten very good at lurking here. If he just sat there very quietly . . . if he did nothing to draw attention to himself . . . he could spy on the fishing boats without them knowing he was there.

The Drylanders were usually too concerned about the state of their lines and nets to pay attention to anything else. Well, anything else other than the conversations they were having with the boats next to them, or with other people in their own boats – the main source of Kai’s intel about land-dwellers.

He heard them talk about deals they were making with tradesmen, about the squabbles involving the town government, and about the music and drama performances given in the town square. He listened to talk of the wonderful things Drylanders did with fire – everything from boiling their water to heating their food.

Oh, he longed to experience fire firsthand. It was the polar opposite of water. It was as far away from the mer world as one could get.

He saw a boat pull up near him and drop its anchor, the fisherman aboard adjusting his nets. He raised his head a little, to get a good look at the face . . .

It was HIM. Kai’s favorite Drylander of them all. What a beautiful face, what an elegant demeanor . . . Every time that man was out here, Kai would get as near to him as he could get without detection, and just stare.

Uruha, that was his name. Kai knew that from hearing him talk to his two friends, who were usually out there with him.

When he thought about going up on land, about living as one of THEM, those fantasies were usually entangled with ones about having Uruha as part of his life. What would it be like to touch him, to kiss him, to . . .

And then, Kai felt a strange stirring in the sea – the kind of thing only merfolk could feel. There was a storm coming in, and fast. He felt the wind picking up, saw clouds starting to gather above them . . . 

Some of the drylanders around them – including Uruha’s two friends – sensed the incoming danger, too, and pulled up their anchors, starting to head back toward the city. One of Uruha’s friends called to him . . . but it was swallowed up by the wind.

Now Kai started to worry. Was there a way he could alert Uruha to the incoming danger – without fully announcing his presence? Maybe he could go out there and rock the boat a little? Maybe he could . . .

But before he could do anything, a huge wind swooped in, and rain started lashing down. Uruha looked up – and there was a moment of panic on his face when he realized what was happening. He pulled his anchor and unfurled his sails . . .

And at that moment, a huge, freak wave began to form next to him. He jerked the sail, frantically, trying to move away . . .

It was too late. The wave grabbed his boat, violently tipped it, and sent Uruha tumbling into the ocean, knocking his head as he fell.

Kai sprung forward, diving under the surface of the water. Uruha had been knocked unconscious, and was just lying there like a rag doll. He wrapped his arm around the other man and brought him to the surface. 

He had to get him to the city, to dry land. He didn’t care if he were seen – all the “humans shouldn’t see you” rules in the world didn’t matter when there was a life at stake. Kai began to swim as hard as he could, battling the winds and the tide as only a merfolk was capable of, keeping his eye toward the city.

Uruha lay still against him, but thank God he was still warm. If he wasn’t . . . if Kai had been unable to save him . . . he didn’t want to think about it.

The opening of the city was before him. Kai slipped in, bringing Uruha to the dock area. He noticed a boat that was tied up nearby and hauled the Drylander into it. He leaned over, listening to his breathing and his heart . . .

He seemed fine, thank God – other than what had happened when he’d been whacked in the head.

Kai just stayed there for a long moment, looking down at the other man – and it suddenly occurred to him what was happening. This was the Drylanders’ city. He was where he’d always wanted to be. And he was with Uruha. The other man was lying under him, looking so, so very beautiful . . .

His heart felt ready to burst. He knew he couldn’t stay. He knew merfolk couldn’t survive in the Drylanders’ world. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be seen – there were stories about horrible things that happened to merfolk who were captured by Drylanders. 

But he was going to keep this moment going as long as he could. And before he knew it, he was leaning over and bringing his lips to Uruha’s for a kiss.

Uruha’s eyes fluttered for just a second, before closing again. And then, Kai plunged back into the water and swam away, as fast and as hard as he came in.

But there was one thing more he needed to do before he went back to his own world. And so, when Uruha finally came to, he saw that his mother’s boat had, somehow, been pushed just inside the gates of the city.

* * *

Kai just aimlessly drifted through the carved stone columns that pretty much made up his father’s palace. He noticed that a couple of the servants were giving him concerned looks, wondering if they should approach the master.

Being the son of the current Shogun of this sea district could be a flat-out pain sometimes. Aoi said other merfolk would want servants at their beck and call? Kai wondered how they’d like the total lack of privacy that went with it. 

Which was half the reason he’d started exploring the sea, then the surface – to have room to breathe.

He hid in a cluster of rocks, leaning up against them and closing his eyes. Except every time he did, he saw Uruha. The beauty was on his mind, constantly. Just seeing him close-up would have been enough, but then, having experienced his kiss . . .

Okay, a one-way kiss. But their lips had still met.

“Kai.” A deep, all-too-familiar voice outside. “Kai, are you in there?”

His father. Well, that just made things worse, didn’t it? He slowly drifted out, sighing. “I’m here.”

The white-haired merfolk, who sported a barrel chest and beefy arms that made him look more like an athlete than a shogun, faced down his son with a disapproving glare. “Kai, my sources tell me you went up to the surface again. You know that’s dangerous.”

Sources . . . meaning, he’d sent servants to spy on him again. Great. Nothing like knowing you had the complete trust of your own parent. “It’s not dangerous,” he said. “I stayed out of sight like I always do.”

“And just how out of sight do you think you are?” his father said. “You can’t make yourself invisible. If one of those Drylanders sees you . . .”

Kai sighed. “Father, do you really believe all those stories about them? That they think they can become immortal by eating our flesh? They’re more like us than you realize.”

“That’s not the point,” his father snapped. “The point is you keep going up to their world, when you know it’s forbidden! I would expect that kind of behavior from a ruffian from Deep Six, not a prince!”

“And that’s another thing!” Kai said. “Why do you think the merfolk who live in Deep Six are ruffians? They’re like us, too! Why can’t you just try to understand them?”

“Understand? I understand that they’re vandals and thieves – they’ve made off with pieces of the palace before. I understand that Drylanders would cut one of us up to see how we work if they could. And I understand that you need to get your head back on your shoulders and start living the life of a young nobleman! Now, I want you to think about . . .”

Kai turned around and started to swim away. He’d had enough. More than enough. Young nobleman? If that meant prejudice against Drylanders, against other merfolk that just happened to be not as highborn as him, he wanted no part of it.

“Where are you going?” his father snapped.

Kai looked over his shoulder. “Off to think, like you said.”

“Kai, if I find out you went up there again, so help me, I’ll . . .”

Kai flipped his tail to propel himself away faster. He didn’t know where he was going. His cave was the most likely destination. He could sit there, and handle his artifacts from the surface, and remember Uruha again . . .

“Well done, my boy!” croaked a voice next to him.

Kai wheeled around and saw an ancient being, with a face like a craggy outcropping of rocks, a jaw jutting out violently, eyes sunken deep beneath sparse white hair. Strangely enough, the newcomer’s tail was still a bright emerald green color.

“Who are you?” Kai said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

“Oh, I’m here, and I’m there,” the old man said. “I hang around the palace when I’m bored. It’s entertaining watching your father being a blowhard. Needs to work on his delivery, though. He sounds like a bellowing whale sometimes.”

“You’d have to be very bored to hang out there,” Kai murmured.

“You think that’s the only place I hang out?” The old man flipped over, swimming on his back. Obviously, he was more agile than he looked. “I’ve been everywhere, my boy. All over this ocean. I’ve even been up there.” He pointed toward the surface.

Okay, now he had Kai’s interest. “Really? Up there? Did you swim into the city?”

“Swim? I lived there. Lived there a couple of times, in fact.” Now the elderly man was moving in barrel rolls, turning around and around like a top. “Yep, up on the shore. Quite an experience.”

Kai suddenly stopped short. Did he just hear what he thought he heard? This man lived . .. on the surface?

He reached out and put a hand on the man’s shoulder, trying to get him to hold still – only to have him slip away. “You lived UP THERE? With the Drylanders? HOW?”

The man laughed, a chortling wheeze. “Come with me, boy, and we’ll discuss it. Not something we can just talk about in public, is it?”

And the old codger took off like a shot, weaving though schools of fish, moving like a merfolk less than half his age. Kai swam after him, mumbling to himself, thinking he wasn’t going to catch up.

Gods of the sea, what was up with this guy? He was insane – wasn’t he? How could merfolk live up there? But then, why was he following him?

The aged man kept going, and going, until he reached a small sea cave, similar to the one where Kai had his treasures. He paused, and waited for the prince to enter.

“That’s it, come in, come in,” the man said. “We don’t have time to waste!”

“Do you have to be somewhere?” Kai said. This cave was very plain – well, unless one counted the clumps of slimy moss everywhere.

“I always have to be somewhere,” the old man said. “There’s always interesting things to do and see! Why, if I stayed in one spot, I’d explode! That’s the point of living, isn’t it? To do, to explore . . .”

Kai held up his hand. “Please – tell me about what you were talking about before.”

“Your father being a blowhard?” The old man leaned against a large rock.

“No! About going up to the surface . . . living there.”

“Oh, yeah, that,” the old man chuckled. “Yeah, did that a long time ago. Every time, it was a hell of a week.”

“Week?” Kai said.

“Well, sure. See, not a lot of folks know that we can go up there for a week. Best kept secret under the sea – ‘specially among the hoity-toity upper classes like your father. They think they’re real special – too special. They don’t want to admit that we used to be just like the Drylanders – and if we go up there, we turn back into ‘em.”

Kai nearly hit his head on the top of the cave in surprise. “We WHAT?”

“Sure, sure, merfolk came from Drylanders. See, thousands of years ago, there used to be a hell of a lot more dry land, so everyone had legs and lived on shore. Floods come, most of the earth gets covered by water, and most of the human race turns into people like us. But if we go back on land . . . bam. We take our original forms.”

“Legs?” Kai said. “You mean, our tails turn into legs?”

“Oh, yes,” the old man said. “Hurts like hell, but it’s worth it. You can walk around just like one of ‘em. Only lasts a few days – a week at most, like I said. You don’t go back into the water on time, you turn back into one of us on dry land, and you die. But hey, worth the risk, right?”

Kai gave the other man a look of sheer disbelief. Was it true? Was it really true?

“Who are you, anyway?” he said.

The old man chortled. “Call me The Elder. Or just Elder. I’m just a wandering soul.” He leaned over toward Kai. “And there’s a lot more of us who’ve been up there than you think. Mostly from the Deep colonies.”

“If I go up there,” Kai said, “if I get onto dry land . . .”

“You just wait for it to happen,” the Elder said.

Kai took off like a shot. He wasn’t going to think it over, wasn’t going to consider it. He knew what he had to do.

“Remember,” the Elder called after him, “seven days only! Any more than that, and you’re done for!”

Kai couldn’t pump his tail fast enough. He just had to calculate where the city was. He was moving through the water like a missile, and unstoppable force . . .

“Whoa!” Aoi called. “Where are you going in such a rush?”

Kai spun around, creating a small water whirlwind with his shift in momentum. “Aoi,” he said, “if my father comes looking for me, please tell him I’m staying with you for a few days.”

“Why would he come looking?” he said. “Where are you going?”

“Up there.” Kai pointed toward the surface. “I can live there. At least for a week. An old man told me how.”

“There? Whoa, Kai, calm down. It’s not possible for us to . .”

“It is, and I’m doing it!” Kai swam off. “I’ll be back in a week!”

“Wait a minute!” Aoi called. “Kai!”

But Kai was gone, moving back toward the surface. Aoi would understand. He was probably the only person who would.

The gates of the city were before him. He slid through effortlessly, and found himself in the boat dock area where he’d brought Uruha. Now, to find somewhere where he wouldn’t be seen . . .

Fortunately, the harbor was empty. All the fishermen were still out with their boats – which made things a lot easier.

There was a storage shed atop an outcropping of rocks. Perfect. He swam over to it. Placing his hands on the rocks, he began to haul his body up and out of the water, a condition he had never really experienced. It felt strange, the air on his tail . . .

He continued to haul himself with his hands, wincing as his tail scraped over the rocks. Almost fully behind the shed now . . .

And then, his whole body was seized with an excruciating pain, unlike anything he’d ever known before. The Elder wasn’t kidding. If anything, he’d soft-pedaled what was going to happen.

Kai fell back on the rock, gasping. It was like swallowing a sword that was tearing him apart from the inside. Was he dying? Was The Elder just crazy? He knew he was gambling with his life here – what if it didn’t pay off?

He found himself blacking out, the image of Uruha’s face filling his mind as he did so.

* * *

Uruha finished tying up his boat. He’d already handed his catch of the day off to Ruki and Reita, who’d gone off to make deals. He’d caught a fair amount of crabs today, which was good. That would pay for the team’s medical services for awhile. The doctor had a fondness for crab.

He couldn’t really get up enthusiasm for their good fortune, though. In fact, he’d been lucky to have seen the crabs in the trap, since he currently had a one-track mind.

It went back to when he’d ended up in someone else’s boat after falling out of his own – which, mercifully, had needed minimal repairs (which, nonetheless, cost the entire catch Ruki and Reita had made the next day). He remembered waking up with a splitting headache, and his two partners fussing over him. Apparently, someone had saved both him and his boat, but they didn’t know who.

But Uruha knew. Well, sort of. He’d seen him . . . kind of.

There was a split second, right before he came to consciousness, that his eyes had opened, then closed again – and in that brief time, he’d seen his rescuer leaning over him. The problem was, Uruha couldn’t recall his exact features – only that he was incredibly beautiful.

And then, their lips had met, soft and hot, but over before Uruha knew it . . . and he’d slipped all the way back into darkness again.

It was that kiss that haunted him. Did he imagine it? Was it all a hallucination from the bump on his head? Or were the man, and the kiss, real?

He knew that if it was, he had to find that man, somehow. To thank him, at the very least.

Uruha rubbed the top of his head. He still had an egg there. He’d been ordered into bed by the doctor for a day afterward, but he insisted on going out today. If he just sat at home, he’d do the team no good – and he’d just brood some more, wouldn’t he?

As he was starting to head from the dock to the path that led home, his eyes caught something unusual. Was that . . . a foot sticking out from behind the supply shed? A bare foot, at that?

He came closer to investigate. That was indeed a bare human foot, and it was attached to a very nice male leg. Which led up to . . .

Uruha gasped. There was a totally naked man lying there. He was his own age . . . and beautiful. Cupid’s bow lips, gorgeously sculpted chest and arms, and, oh, God, what a huge cock . . .

He looked like something out of a wet dream. He also looked vaguely familiar, for some strange reason. “Vaguely familiar” wasn’t something that happened very often in Uruha’s world – in a small, closely settled colony, just about everyone knew each other.

Uruha knew he couldn’t just stand there staring at this guy. Obviously, he had to do something – he was obviously in need, if not danger. Crime was very rare in their society, but occasionally, it did happen – maybe this person had been robbed. He pulled off his shirt, draping it over the part that most needed to be covered, and then gently shook the man’s shoulder.

“Hey . . . wake up. Are you okay?” No response, so he shook him again. “Open your eyes. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

He just hoped the newcomer wasn’t comatose – or worse.

* * *

Kai felt the touch on his arm and opened his eyes, slowly.

What happened? Where was he? All he remembered was pain, and more pain, and . . . well, obviously, he didn’t die. And he could breathe. And . . .

He raised his head a little. There was someone bending over him, obviously concerned. A man, young, about his age . . . He shook his head. Okay, he was hallucinating from whatever happened to him. It looked like Uruha.

“You’re awake,” the other said. “Come on, I’ll take you somewhere where you can rest. You can tell me what happened then.”

Kai sat up, slowly, propping himself on his elbows, blinking against the light. It was Uruha, all right. He’d been saved by the man he’d saved a couple of days ago. He couldn’t believe his luck.

He also couldn’t believe what he was seeing on his own lower half. He raised himself higher so he could get a better look. Legs. He had LEGS! And feet! The Elder wasn’t just a crazy old fool, after all!

“Don’t try to get up too fast,” Uruha said. “Here – give me your hands. Let me help you.”

Kai did, opening his mouth to speak – and nothing came out. He coughed, tried to clear his throat – to no avail. And it was then that he realized just how irritated his throat was. Of course – the transition from gill-breathing to full-time mouth breathing would have effects, wouldn’t it? Like irritating his throat enough to give him laryngitis.

It was as if he’d had to give up his voice in exchange for those legs.

“What’s wrong?” Uruha said. “You can’t talk?” Kai shook his head. “Are you sick?” Kai shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll have to have the doctor look at you. Come on . . .”

Those hands were offered to him again. Kai grabbed them. Oh, no, he had to get up now, didn’t he? He had no idea how those legs worked. Think it through, use logic . . . He planted his feet on the ground, starting to push upward. Yes, that was right, his body was starting to rise, and Uruha was helping him, guiding him upward . . .

What a strange feeling, being planted on the ground, rising through the air. He felt . . . elevated. Like he was floating above the ground. He reached his full height, looking around him . . .

And immediately felt dizzy. Those legs under him turned to rubber. He tried to keep his feet on the ground, but they were flailing all over the place, and he was stumbling around.

“Whoa, whoa!” Uruha grabbed Kai’s arm and wrapped it around his shoulder. “Here, let me help you.” He was holding Kai in place, stabilizing him . . .

And their bodies were close. Kai certainly couldn’t miss that little detail. Uruha felt good. He was so warm, and rough and smooth at the same time, and . . .

Dry. The texture was a novelty to Kai. It was strangely delicious.

“Come on,” Uruha said. “Walk forward.”

Walk . . . that meant putting one foot in front of the other, right? He pushed one leg in front of the other . . . no, he should lift the foot, right? He tried again – success. Now the other leg . . .

And he was walking, actually walking like a Drylander. Well, he was being supported by Uruha, and his legs were still wobbly. But he was moving forward. And suddenly, elation filled him.

He was doing the one thing he’d always dreamed of. He’d achieved what he thought was impossible. And he had the one Drylander who’d most caught his attention beside him to boot.

Losing his voice seemed a small price to pay. He’d give up a lot more to have this experience.

* * *

Uruha’s two partners paused outside his door. “Sure we should do this?” Reita said. “I mean, if he’s got a guy in there, it’s none of our business, right?”

“He wouldn’t have needed a doctor if the guy was capable of doing that!” Ruki snapped. “We’re just making sure everything’s okay, got it?”

They’d started hearing the talk right after leaving the doctor’s office – that Uruha had been spotted helping a man walk down the street who was wearing nothing but Uruha’s shirt around his hips. Only the fact that the man seemed to be visibly injured kept this from going from “curiosity” to “scandal.” And then, they’d seen the doctor go running past them, headed toward Uruha’s house.

Clearly, something strange was happening.

Ruki raised his hand and rapped on the door. Uruha opened it. “I was wondering when you two would show up,” he said.

“What the fuck is going on?” Ruki said. “Did you pull this guy out of the water?”

“I found him behind the boat shack,” Uruha said. “I don’t know anything about him – he can’t talk. He just nods yes or no. The doctor said he’s got laryngitis.” The exam had been rather odd, too – Kai had cringed from the instruments, like he’d never seen medical tools before. Uruha had to explain that the doctor was trying to help him.

“Sure that’s all that’s wrong with him?” Reita glanced over to the bed, where the newcomer was lying. Damn, but he was a gorgeous one. If Uruha really had found him lying naked, then he gave new meaning to “catch of the day.”

Uruha nodded. “The doctor said he seemed dehydrated, but that’s it. He thinks he’s a shipwreck survivor – might have floated around on a board for a few days.” That would explain the lack of a new boat in the harbor. (It would not, however, explain the lack of sunburn on Kai’s body).

“So . . . what are you going to do with him?” Ruki glanced over at the other man. He was sitting up in bed – he was dressed in a shirt and pants of Uruha’s now – and seemed to be observing them with interest. No, not just interest – it was almost as if he was studying him.

“Look after him until he feels ready to leave,” Uruha said. “Until he gets his voice back, at least.”

“How’s he going to leave if his boat was destroyed?” Ruki said. “Get a ride with one of the trade boats?”

Uruha nodded. “He had to have been a Wanderer,” he said. “I asked him if he was from around here, he said no. Same thing when I asked him if he was a trader.”

“What’s his name?” Reita said.

“He can’t talk, remember?” Ruki retorted.

“You should call him Yutaka,” Reita said. “He looks like a Yutaka.”

Kai shook his head. No, his name wasn’t Yutaka. He’d never even heard the name before – it wasn’t used in mer society. Then again, he wasn’t sure if the name “Kai” was used on the surface, either – which meant they’d guess and guess at his name all day and not arrive at it.

“See, that’s not his name,” Ruki said. “And you can’t make up names for people like they were dogs!”

“Well, what are we going to call him, then?” Reita said.

“We’ll just call him Wanderer,” Uruha said. “At least until he gets his voice back and can tell us. Unless . . .” He looked at Kai. “Can you write it?”

Kai frowned. While Japanese was spoken the same in the mer and surface worlds – just with a few differences in dialect – he wasn’t sure if the written form was the same. Merfolk had little use for writing, anyway – only the upper classes were taught to read, and that was mostly for inscriptions on old stone tablets that contained the rules of their kingdom.

And there was no way he knew how to use the human tool for writing – which he had several examples of in his collection. What was it called again? Pon? Pan? Pen, that was it.

“They might use different name kanji where he comes from,” Ruki noted. “We’ve seen that with Wanderers before. Look, just call him Wanderer for now. Give him lots of broth, that will probably help his voice.” He looke at Uruha. “You going to be able to go out with the boat tomorrow?”

Uruha nodded. “If he’s doing okay, I will.”

“We’re leaving you alone, then,” Ruki said. “Come get us if you need anything.”

The two of them left, and Uruha drew a deep breath, shutting the door behind him. “Those were my partners,” he said. “We have a fishing business together.” He moved over to the stove. “I’m going to make dinner for us. I had a stew I started eating yesterday, I’ll just add to it so there’s enough for both of us.” He opened a compartment in the floor – underground cold storage – and brought out a big, metal pot, setting it on the stove. “You can eat, right? You don’t feel sick to your stomach?”?

Kai shook his head no.

“Good,” Uruha said. “You’ll feel better after you do.” He reached in a bucket next to him – where he stored his personal catch of the day – and pulled out a fish, which he began to fillet. “I was in the same boat as you – so to speak – the other day. I almost drowned in a storm. Somebody saved me. I fell out of my boat and hit my head, and when I woke up? I was on dry land. Not too far from where I found you, in fact.”

He looked back at the other man as he scraped the fish into the pot. “I just wish I could find the guy so I could thank him,” he said. (Why did the Wanderer drop his head and look thoughtful just then? Did someone rescue him the same way on another occasion? Did he make a regular habit of being shipwrecked?)

Uruha turned a switch at the bottom of the stove, and a small flame leaped into life. “Do they have electricity where you come from?” he said. “We have some – that’s what the windmills at the top of the hill are for. We’re only allowed to use it at certain times of day, though. Most of the power gets used for the paper and metal plants.” And those were valuable – this island’s only tradable commodities. They’d gotten very good at recycling paper and metal – some of the materials they used were said to date back to the Time Before, when the world wasn’t almost completely covered with water.

Kai watched with interest as Uruha stirred the pot. The thing below it – that was fire? It was gorgeous. It was like a little piece of the sun, glowing, leaping, dancing . . . he knew that this whole trip to the surface was worth it now, worth the pain he’d gone through to get here.

He reached out a hand in front of him, waving it back and forth. No resistance. Nothing but air all around him, on every part of his body. It was nothing less than a miracle. He knew when he got back, he was going to have to find that old guy and thank him.

Kai wasn’t going to think about going back, though. Not at all. He was going to savor every single second of being here.

Uruha got out two bowls – yes, Kai had some of them in his collection, too – and began to ladel the stew into them. It was pretty much a boiled hodgepodge of a few kinds of fish, seaweed, and some other edible undersea plants – the staples of the human diet ever since the Deluge.

“All right,” Uruha said. “I’m going to help you to the table, and we can eat.” He walked over to Kai, holding his arms out. Kai grabbed onto them, and let himself be pulled to his feet.

It got easier every time he did it, this business of putting one foot in front of the other. It was starting to feel a bit more natural, less awkward. More, well, human.

Uruha settled him into the chair, and took the one across from him. “This is the first time someone else has been at this table since my mother died,” Uruha said. He pointed to a painting hung on the opposite wall, a small canvas bearing an image of a young woman who looked a lot like Uruha. “That’s her. She passed on about six months ago. She owned my boat before I did.”

Kai glanced over at the painting of the beautiful woman, and then looked down at his bowl. What was he supposed to do with this liquidy stuff? How did the Drylanders eat again? He knew he’d collected the utensils, watched them eating on the boats . . .

There was a pair of those sticks next to his bowl. Was that it? Was he supposed to pick up the solid bits with those sticks, and then drink the broth? He grabbed them in his hands . . . funny how his fingers moved much more rapidly without webbing between them. 

Uruha was doing just that, capturing a piece of fish, then bringing it to his mouth, then going in the bowl for more. Kai looked at how he was holding them, one on top of the other . . .

He pushed them into the bowl, pulled them apart and slammed them together. That just made some of the hot liquid slosh out and onto him. He would have cursed if he’d had a voice.

Uruha seemed oblivious to his problem, and continued talking about his mother between bites. “Her doctor said she might have worked herself to death,” he said. “She supported both of us on her own. My father . . . well, I never knew him. My mother said he was there and gone before I was born. One of the Wanderers who passed through this island.” He looked over at Kai. “Like you, right? Maybe you’re from the same island my father was.”

Kai was still stabbing at the fish, pulling the sticks apart, slamming them together, and getting nowhere. What kind of a way to eat was this? How did the Drylanders do it so easily? Were they born knowing how to do this, the way merfolk were born knowing how to swim?

Finally, out of frustration, he tossed the sticks aside, picked up the bowl in both hands, tipped it forward and just started drinking, slurping the fish bits into his mouth as he did so. He was aware of Uruha’s puzzled eyes on him. Oh, heck, was this not done here? Too late – he was three-quarters of the way through the bowl.

When he finished it, he put it down, stew all over his face. Wait – food stuck to you here? Of course it did, there was no constant flow of water to wash it away. What was he supposed to do now?

He just sat there, frozen, until Uruha leaned over, reaching for the folded piece of cloth that was beside his plate. He handed it to Kai.

Kai watched as Uruha took a similar piece and wiped it across his face. So this is what you were supposed to do – clean yourself. He rubbed the cloth all over his face, even the parts without stew on them.

He was bound and determined to be one of them, no matter what it took. When he was done, he flashed Uruha a dimpled smile.

“I guess you’re from one of the places where they don’t have chopsticks,” Uruha said. “I have spoons somewhere – I’ll give you one tomorrow.” He leaned back in his seat. “Maybe when you get your voice back, you can tell me about where you’re from.”

Kai knew he couldn’t do that. Letting Drylanders know about the presence of merfolk was forbidden. And besides, he didn’t want to freak Uruha out.

“I’ll help you to the bathroom when you’re done,” Uruha said. “You can do your business, and then . . . I’ll make a bedroll for myself on the floor, we have guest bedding. You can stay on the bed.”

Bathroom? Do his business? He’d heard those words before from humans. They usually were associated with someone standing up in his boat, dropping his pants and letting fly a stream of liquid. Waste elimination. And they’d joke that they did it over the side because they didn’t have a toilet – whatever that was.

Fortunately, Uruha was kind enough to point that out to him when he walked him to the bathroom. “I don’t know if you have flush toilets where you come from, but there’s ours, right there. You do your business in it and then pull that chain over there. I’ll be outside, I’ll use it after you.”

Kai sighed after the other man left the room. So many complex things about being a Drylander. Waste elimination was easy for merfolk – it all just dropped from their bodies onto the ocean floor. Up here? They had to work at it.

Fine, he’d work at it. One more thing to master, and he’d master it. And somehow, he managed to do it, and hit his target, imitating the men he’d seen on the boats. He wasn’t prepared for the BOOM when he pulled that chain, though. He watched in amazement as water flowed into the bowl – a tiny, artificially-created maelstrom.

Drylanders were amazing creatures. An artificial whirlpool to get rid of waste? Who would have thought of that? He pulled the chain again, just to see it flush. Incredible!

There was a knock on the door. “Wanderer? Are you all right?” Then a pause. “Right – can’t talk. That’s easy to forget.”

Uruha stood outside the door, listening to the toilet flush a third time. What the hell was going on in there? He was an odd one, this Wanderer. Probably came from some of the way, way outer islands – the ones that people here merely gossiped about, since so few of them made the trip this far.

But he had to admit, there was something fascinating about him as well. Not just his beauty, and the dimples that appeared around his mouth when he smiled. It was the way he seemed to look at everything with childlike wonder – the way his eyes followed the dancing flames on his stove, how he ate his stew with gusto (even though he didn’t know how to handle the utensils), the way he listened intently to the story about his mother . . .

He found himself hoping this Wanderer would start talking sooner, rather than later, so he could find out more about him.

Finally, the door opened, and his guest was there, hanging onto the doorframe, flashing him that dimpled smile. “All right, if you’re done, I’ll help you back over there,” Uruha said. He wrapped an arm around him, and led him across the floor. “If you’re feeling better tomorrow, I’m going to go out in my boat – I may come back early, though.”

Kai nodded. Yes, Uruha could go out in his boat. He felt fine right now. In fact, he’d never felt better in his life.

A week, the Elder had said. Fine. He was going to make the most out of every minute of it.

* * *

Uruha left early the next day, after dishing out a bit more food for himself and Kai. He repeated that he was going to try to come in early to check on him.

Once he was gone, Kai rolled to the edge of the bed. He was bound and determined to teach himself to walk alone. If he was going to learn about this place, if he was going to experience it through the eyes of a Drylander, then he couldn’t stay in the bed in this cottage, could he?

He planted his feet on the floor, pushed upward . . . and launched himself into a standing position, flailing, stumbling, and falling back down on the bed. He caught himself, hands on mattress, panting.

And then, he pushed upward with his arms, getting back on his feet again. This time, he concentrated on finding a center of balance, of making gravity work for him, not against him . . .

He pushed one foot forward, then the other. It was a slow, awkward shuffle, to be sure. But he was walking. Now, he had to just lift the feet, like he did with Uruha . . .

He was stumbling again, arms flailing, and he fell forward toward the table, grabbing a chair to keep from falling all the way to the floor. Dammit. Had . . . to . . . push . . . up . . . again . . .

And he worked at it, and worked at it, throughout the day, concentrating on making his steps quicker, surer, on staying balanced, on lifting his feet . . .

By the time Uruha returned to the cottage, Kai was walking almost as well as a native-born Drylander. He’d even figured out how to sit down and push himself out of a chair.

“You must be doing better,” Uruha said, “if you’re out and about.” Kai nodded enthusiastically. “Do you feel well enough for me to show you some of the town?” Kai nodded again.

And the two of them headed out in the late afternoon, Kai walking beside Uruha with confidence – his gait a tiny bit wobbly, but nothing serious. He didn’t have to grab the other man’s arm at all.

“This is the tinker’s shop,” Uruha said, pointing to one of the squat buildings that made up the merchant district. Two men could be seen inside, hammering away on workbenches. “They repair things here. Over there is the tailor, they make and fix clothing. This is one of the metal shops . . .”

Kai peeked inside. Oh, they had fire in here, a LOT of it. The man inside was holding a piece of metal into the flames with tongs until it glowed red, as red as the fire itself. Then, he took it to a big slab of stone, grabbed a hammer, and began to bang at it.

Uruha noticed how intently the Wanderer was watching this. “Hey – you like that kind of thing?” he said. Kai nodded. “Did you ever do any of it where you came from?” Kai shook his head.

“You seem to have, well, a passion for life,” Uruha said. “You know – you appreciate things.” And it really was amazing to him that Kai could find such joy in what he considered plain and ordinary, the humdrum existence of a fisherman in a society that was, well, humdrum - focused on surviving, rather than living.

“Hey,” Uruha said, “have you ever been anywhere where things are different from this? You know – where people have more space, and lead an easier life? Because I’ve heard from some of the Wanderers that there’s still places like that, somewhere. Or so I’ve heard. They say in the Time Before – before the waters came, that is – the whole world was like that.”

Kai shook his head no. Oh, he’d been to a place that was “different,” all right. He’d lived there. Uruha was dreaming of luxury? That was the life Kai had lived as a merfolk prince, and all he’d wanted to do was escape it.

It all reminded him of a saying from back home – “The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake.”

“Now that you’re better,” Uruha said, “maybe you can have a bath before dinner, right?” You use the water first, and then I’ll use it.” He put a hand on Kai’s arm as they headed back toward his place – not out of help, out of companionship. “And then, tomorrow, there’s supposed to be performers in the town square. Maybe we can go see them, if you’re up to it.”

Kai was very aware of that hand on his arm, and he liked it. He liked it an awful lot. It seemed like a very, well, human thing to do. And the fact that it was Uruha didn’t hurt, either.

* * *

Apparently, this “bath” thing involved running a tank of hot water, rinsing your body off and then lying in the tank. Drylanders seemed to think lying in the hot water was relaxing. It was a strange feeling to Kai – it was like being home, yet not like it. The water was fresh, not salt. He was still breathing air, not through gills, and he was just lying there, soaking.  
Well, for Drylanders, it was apparently a novelty.

When Uruha gave him a spoon with his dinner, Kai decided to use it. He grabbed it, shoveling up some of the fish and cramming it in his mouth. There! Another Drylander skill mastered! He felt quite proud of himself.

Uruha watched him. His way of eating was rather . . . sloppy. He was still sloshing stuff all over the place. But uncouth as that part of him was, there was still something of a charm about him – and that, without saying a word.

Part of him almost hoped the Wanderer would never speak. What if he turned out to have a dull personality? It would certainly clash with the image Uruha had built up of him, which was . . . what? A fascinating person from an exotic place?

What was it about the Wanderer that made him feel he was unlike anyone he’d ever known before?

When Uruha went out in his boat the next day, Kai devoted the hours to going through the house, bit by bit, taking all the items out, handling them carefully, then putting them back. It was everything he’d had in his collection at home, and more. There were plates and platters, to be sure, and chopsticks, and silverware. There were pots and pans, including one extra-big pot used for steaming shellfish – what these people ate on their special occasions.

There were a few books, bound in a leathery material made from treating sharkskin, filled with yellowed pages covered with angular lines that he knew was the form of writing used here. He could make out a couple of characters, but most of it was unknown to him. That didn’t stop him from flipping the pages with fascination, studying the shapes, the patterns of what was on them.

What was on these pages, he wondered? Was it the knowledge of these people? Maybe stories about the Time Before?

He had everything put away by the time Uruha came back. “My partners were asking about you,” he said. “I told them you’re doing better, but you haven’t spoken yet.” He put down his bucket of the day’s catch. “They might see us at the performance tonight.” Uruha went over to his closet. “I’ve got a nice shirt for you to wear to that.” He pulled out a green garment – ironically, the color of Kai’s tail when he was in his true form. “How about this? For some reason, it reminds me of you.”

Kai looked at it, curiously. How could Uruha know? There was no way – he’d never seen him in mer form, and never would. But he nodded, enthusiastically.

When they were done with dinner, and Uruha had finished cleaning off the dishes (a quick dunk in a bucket of salt water), he said, “Okay, I’ll use the bathroom to get dressed.” He went to the closet, pulling out some clothes for himself. “You can do it right here.”

Kai sat down. Removing and replacing these clothes was another challenge – especially when it involved buttons. He’d watched Uruha get dressed that first morning, studying him intently, figuring out how buttons and zippers worked.

Pants on one leg at a time. Zipper pulled up. Button at the top fastened. And then, the shirt . . .

He was still struggling with the buttons when Uruha came out, fully dressed in a dark red shirt covered with a black vest and matching pants. “Let me help you with that,” he said. And he leaned over, pushing the little buttons through the hole . . . 

He was close. So close that Kai could feel his breath. And all he could think of was that kiss he stole after he saved him, how close they had been, a deliciously forbidden act. He wanted to kiss him again, longed to lean forward and press their lips together.

Except Uruha leaned back with a smile. “There,” he said. “You’re done.”

And so was the chance of kissing him. Kai felt his heart sink.

But he brightened again as Uruha led him into the town square. There were people everywhere, sitting on benches that had been laid out for the performance. Their attention was centered on a raised platform at the other end of the square – a stage, just like they had in the forums and coliseums back home.

“They usually have musicians first,” Uruha whispered, “and then a play.”

Sure enough, two men came out in brightly colored clothes bearing stringed instruments, and began to play and sing a ballad about lost love.

Kai wasn’t paying much attention to them, though – he was looking around at the other people around him. So many Drylanders! Such a variety of sizes and shapes – tall ones, short ones, stocky ones, reedy ones. Male and female, young and old. Amazing how they were so like merfolk in some ways – their faces were similar, though their hair lay flat, rather than flowing around them as merfolk’s hair did in the water.

It was a beautiful night, the moon a crescent hanging low in the skies, the stars winking everywhere in their indigo velvet bowl. And the air was a perfect temperature, not too warm, not too cold. Perfectly comfortable.

He was just glad to be alive, to be here, to be with Uruha.

The musicians left the stage, and the play began. It also had a theme of love, of mistaken identity and messages delivered to the wrong recipients and people romancing someone who, unbeknownst to them, was an enemy of their clan. Again, Kai only halfway paid attention, though he laughed when everyone else did (well, made the motions of laughing anyway, given his voiceless state).

The play did, however, get him thinking about love.

Romantic relationships were definitely common in the mer kingdom. Gender didn’t matter, you loved whoever you loved. Of course, one was expected to reproduce, as well, and it wasn’t uncommon for a male-male couple to find a willing female to be their surrogate, in exchange for all three being involved in the child’s life. (That was the one thing mer society always expected of you, no matter what your social class – always be involved in the upbringing of children you helped create. Which made Kai wonder if any children had ever been fathered by merfolk visiting shore – that had to be the one exception to the rule.)

Sex was very much a part of their lives, too, though there wasn’t a heavy emphasis put on it. Mer gentitalia was almost identical to their land-based counterparts – it was just kept tucked away inside their bodies until they got sexually aroused, at which point they emerged from a slit in the tail.

Male-female mating was much the same as between humans. Two men made love with frottage and oral. Kai had both straight and gay experiences back home – he and Aoi had been together for awhile, before Aoi met Kazuki and fell in love.

What would it be like here? What would it be like to make love with Uruha?

Kai found himself looking away from his companion, blushing. He shouldn’t be thinking that way, not with the other man right beside him. What would make him think that Uruha would be interested in a man who couldn’t speak?

But part of him held out that hope, that he’d experience that before he went home, and refused to give it up.

* * *

The next day, the fourth in Kai’s seven, Uruha had an interesting proposal for him – “Why don’t I take you out on my boat for the day? You can see what I do, and it will be different for you than sitting around here.” Kai nodded with enthusiasm. He was quite interested in seeing how Drylanders went about fishing.

And so, they headed out to sea, Uruha’s two partners following in their own boat. “We’re going to be dropping the nets right here,” Uruha said, “looking for flounder.”

Now, Kai knew very well that schools of flounder weren’t in this area. They were several miles away. He shook his head, violently.

“What do you mean?” Uruha said.

Kai shook his head again, and pointed at the spot where he knew the flounder were located.

“What’s he doing?” Reita called from the next boat.

“I think he’s trying to tell us where to find flounder,” Uruha called back.

“What?” Ruki said. “He’s a Wanderer. What the fuck does he know about these waters?”

Oh, Kai knew more than they ever did, or ever would. He shook his head and pointed again.

“Guys,” Uruha said, “I think I’m going to try it. I’m going over there.”

“What?” Ruki said. “You’re crazy.”

“Call me crazy,” Uruha said, pulling up anchor, “but if this works, you’re going to be calling me a genius.”

“I’m going to be calling you a dreamer for even trying it,” Ruki called, watching him go. Looking over at Reita, he said, “What is it with him and this guy? Ever since he came, it’s like he’s built his whole world around him.”

“He’s in love,” Reita replied. “You can’t fault him for that.”

“In love?” Ruki said. “He’s known him for three days! The guy can’t even speak!”

“Sometimes,” Reita said, “some things speak louder than words.”

Ruki just shook his head and went back to his own nets – which were bringing in nothing. Zip, zero, goose egg. It was going to be one of those days.

Except it wasn’t in Uruha’s sector of the ocean. As Ruki watched in amazement, his parter hauled in a huge net of flounder.

“Well, I’ll be . . .” he said.

Reita smiled, broadly. “Now, you were calling him crazy, right?”

Ruki pulled up the anchor. “We’re going over there. This guy is some sort of fucking fishing genius. What, does he have a map of the ocean or something?”

Or something. If Ruki only knew . . .

* * *

The next two days, Kai continued to go out in the boat with Uruha, pointing out the best places to go for the best catches – and Uruha’s team continued to pull in huge hauls of fish. “I don’t know how the fuck he does it,” Ruki said, “but I’m glad he’s on our side.”

The group had cut themselves deals for the rest of the year (including Uruha paying off the medical treatment from the day Kai arrived, thanks to a healthy cache of crabs). They’d even been able to afford a couple of new pieces of clothing – considered a real luxury in their world.

And when they got home, Uruha would cook the best of the day’s catch for them, and talk, and Kai would listen, making gestures whenever he could to communicate. Except there was a new development the evening of his last full day on shore.

He’d started noticing it was easier to swallow the stew (and it was also easier to use the spoon now.) Uruha was talking about he and his mother had tried building their own crab traps once, while stirring the pot – and he dropped the spoon, reaching in to grab it, and yelping when he got burned.

Automatically, Kai leapt upward – yes, he was good enough with his legs to do that now – and said, “Are you all right?” And the words actually came out. They were harsher and more raspy than they were when he lived in the sea, of course, but he was talking.

Both of them froze in place. Uruha’s pain was forgotten. He just stared at Kai, eyes wide.

“You . . . talked,” he said.

“Yes,” Kai said. “I don’t know how, but it’s back.” And just in time for . . .no, he wasn’t going to think about it.

“I’m so glad,” Uruha said, walking toward him. “I . . .”

Kai got up, walking toward him as well. “You don’t have to say anything, Uruha,” Kai said. “I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done. You didn’t have to take me in like this.”

“Yes, I did,” Uruha replied. “I did. I don’t know why, but I felt like somehow, well . . . you were important to me.” He laughed, softly. “I know that sounds crazy.”

“It isn’t,” Kai said. “Because . . . I was the one who saved you, when you fell off your boat.”

“You?” Uruha said. “How is that possible? You just got here!”

“I was hanging around before that,” Kai said. And he was going to leave it at that.

“So I should be thanking you . . .” And then, Uruha looked at him with puzzlement. A name. He still didn’t know what to call him.

Kai spontaneously reached out and pulled him into an embrace, and it just felt right – for both of them. “Kai,” he said. “My name is Kai.”

“Kai,” Uruha repeated, softly. And then he leaned toward Kai, and their lips met for the first time. It was a soft kiss, gentle and warm and sweet, and unlike any Kai had ever experienced. Because the contrast of Uruha’s soft, moist lips and the dry air was making his heart pound.

A loud bubbling noise interrupted them. “Oh, my God, the stew!” Uruha said, pulling away from Kai and rushing to the stove, managing to salvage their dinner just in time.

Kai smiled to himself. He wasn’t going to think about the fact that this was the last day. Oh, no, not at all. But at least he’d gotten his voice back in time to tell the other man his name.

And when he went, it would be with the memory of Uruha’s kiss.

* * *

They had an actual two-way conversation during dinner for the first time, and Kai tried to keep the subject matter from himself as much as possible. Uruha did ask him where he was from (he gave a vague “Somewhere far, far from here”), what his everyday life was like (“Boring, that’s why I left”) and whether he was a fisherman himself (“Let’s say I have a lot of experience with fish.”)

And the rest of the time, he asked questions about Uruha’s town, and its barter system, and his two partners – like what happened to Reita’s nose. He knew it might be his only chance to satisfy his curiosities.

At the end of the meal, Uruha said to him, “There’s going to be a dance band in the square tonight, do you want to go?”

Dance? He processed the word through his mental encyclopedia of Drylander terminology and came up with “moving around to music.” “I can’t really dance,” he said.

“Neither can I,” Uruha said, “but it would be fun to try. Besides, we could just watch other people for awhile.”

And so, they headed for the square, which was cleared of benches tonight. On the stage were a couple of pipes players, a couple of stringed instrument players, and a guy beating a big drum. People were clutching onto each other, whirling around in time to the music. Some of them had their feet following orderly steps, others were just kind of stumbling, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

He wasn’t going to think about the fact that this time tomorrow night, he’d be back in his own world, and wouldn’t be seeing this anymore. He was just going to grab onto every single moment, hold onto it and savor it.

“Well?” Uruha said. “Want to try?”

A big smile crossed Kai’s face. “Yes,” he said.

He wrapped his arms around Uruha, and then they were moving around and around, laughing, not really keeping a hundred percent to the beat but at least close (and closer than some native-born Drylanders around him). And Kai looked up at the stars, and breathed the air, and heard the music, and felt the wonderful man in his arms . . .and thought he’d probably never be this happy again.

* * *

There was a different atmosphere tonight as they headed back to Uruha’s place, holding hands and pausing for the occasional kiss. They both knew this evening wasn’t going to end with Kai sleeping on the bed and Uruha on the floor.

Kai felt his stomach fluttering with nervous excitement as they entered the cottage, and took their turns using the bathroom, as always. (Kai had even figured out how to clean his teeth with a paste from watching Uruha do it). And his suspicions were confirmed when, instead of getting out the bedroll, Uruha sat on the bed, and held his arms out to him.

“Come,” he said, and Kai walked over and sat down at his side.

Kai let himself be drawn into Uruha’s embrace, their lips coming together in a soft kiss. He brought his arms around the other man, drawing him in tighter . . . yes, kissing up here was very much like in his own world, wasn’t it?

Except when Uruha’s tongue began to brush his own . . . well, that was different. Because now that he was used to experiencing dry all the time, the sensation of wet was, well . . .

Amazing. Incredible. Something ordinary tuned extraordinary, the way the sunset dyed the sky all sorts of colors.

Kai let his head tip backward, and Uruha began to stroke his tongue down his neck . . . a trail of moist against the dry. It was so hot, the slick thing that was brushing against him, moving along his pulse line, working upward to his jaw – which Uruha traced, slowly, sliding upward.

Kai found himself letting out a low sound, fingers clutching in Uruha’s hair, pulling him closer. Oh, dear merciful gods of the sea, he felt like a virgin. Well, in a way, he was – he’d never experienced this as a being with legs before.

His eyes fluttered closed as the other man began to nibble his ear. How, exactly, did two Drylanders make love? He knew some of it, from the bawdy talk he’d heard from the boats. Between males and females, it seemed to be pretty much like it was for merfolk. Between two men, however . . .

Uruha eased back from Kai, a smile playing at his lips. And then, he reached for the bottom of his shirt, pulling it off and dropping it on the floor. The sight of his chest, with small, pink nipples standing out from the flawless skin . . .

Merfolk were born and lived nude, except for decorations they wore on their bodies. The sight of a male chest shouldn’t affect him . . . except Kai had seen how the Drylanders lived covered up. He knew that being nude among them was a taboo.

He understood that Uruha showing him his body was a gift, a privilege, something he didn’t do for just anyone. And so, he gave that gift back, reaching down to strip off his own shirt as well. He saw Uruha’s eyes move over his body in appreciation, drinking him in, memorizing every inch of him.

And then, Uruha leaned in for a kiss, and the merfolk-in-human-form pulled him closer, opening his lips, drinking him in . . . and feeling the sensation of bare skin on bare skin. Oh, it was lovely, the way it rubbed together, creating a warmth all its own . . . he could feel every bit of Uruha caressing every bit of him all at once.

Friction . . a concept unknown to merfolk, who lived where everything was wet and slick.

Kai moaned into Uurha’s mouth, rubbing his chest against the other man’s, harder and faster, feeling Uruha start to move against him as well, hands reaching between them, rubbing Kai’s stomach, then chest . .

The fingers slid over his nipples, and Kai felt a shock of pleasure so strong that he had to lean back out of the kiss, his head falling backward, mouth open in a gasp. The fingers moved around, stimulating what seemed to be one nerve at a time . . .

“Oh, yes,” Kai moaned. “More . . .”

Uruha smiled. “You’re sensitive there,” he said. And Kai found himself guided backward, until he was lying on his back on the bed, Uruha leaning over him, bending down toward Kai’s chest . . .

His tongue licked at a bud, the wet caress contrasting with the dry friction of before, and his lips closed around it, sucking, the pressure of his lips driving Kai near-mad. He writhed under his new lover, thinking the sensation was more intense than anything he’d ever felt. And when Uruha lifted his head so he could brush the nipple with his fingers, then licked again, then brushed, the contrast of wet and dry was so strong he thought he was going to come in his pants.

“Mmmm,” Uruha murmured, getting off on Kai’s pleasure as much as Kai was getting off on what he was doing. He sucked hard at the nipple, then raised his head, turning it so he could brush his hair across it.

“Aaaah . . .” Kai panted. “Oh, Uruha . . . I need to feel you . . .”

“I want to feel you, too,” Uruha said. He eased off Kai, moving toward the edge of the bed, standing up and unfastening his pants. As the merfolk-turned-human watched, he pushed them down and off, then stood before him, naked.

Kai was mesmerized. It was his first look at a Drylander fully uncovered – well, other than his own current body – and he was beautiful. Exquisite. The way his legs were matched by his arms in perfect symmetry, the erection that was standing proudly at attention against his belly, and the thighs, oh, those gorgeous thighs . . .

Kai sat up, reaching out to run his fingers along them. They had to be the most beautiful part of the other man’s body. Strong and shapely, graceful and erotic . . . and like nothing on a merfolk’s body. He began to explore, caressing upward, then down, noticing how Uruha shuddered in pleasure as his touch grew closer to where they joined the rest of his body.

“I guess that means you like what you see,” Uruha said on a shaky breath.

Kai eased his hands away. “Can I see the back of you, too?” he said.

Uruha turned around, and Kai was presented with a sight for sore eyes. The twin mounds of firm flesh above those thighs, elegantly curved, with a tantalizing cleft running down the middle . . .

Kai took them in his hands and squeezed, caressing them. It felt marvelous – not like any other part of Uurha. He kneaded, feeling the texture, the strength of underlying muscle, the way the skin seemed so soft and supple in contrast . . .

Uruha moaned, pushing his ass back toward Kai, glorying in the attention – hell, the worship – he was being given. Kai was making him feel more beautiful than any lover he’d ever been with, and it was making his cock ache, feeling like it was going to burst.

He needed to come, and he needed to bring this extraordinary man over the edge with him.

Uruha looked over his shoulder, panting. “Everything off,” he said. “Now.”

Kai blinked for a moment (Uruha didn’t like what he was doing?) and then, it hit him what his lover meant. He hopped off the bed as Uruha had, unfastening his pants, stripping them off.

He saw Uruha’s eyes widen as he bared his erection – yes, his cock was just as big as it seemed the day Uruha found him. “Oh, Kai . . .” Uruha reached out, running his fingers lightly over his hardness – and Kai let out a moan. If the touch on his nipples had been intense, this was making him feel like he was going to burst into flame. Friction on his cock, which seemed to reverberate through his whole body like the ripples from a splash . . .

And then, Uruha was pulling him in his arms for another kiss, and they were tumbling to the bed together. Uruha began to move his hips so that his cock slid against Kai’s . . . the familiar way two merfolk males made love.

Except there was nothing familiar about this. Not the way that every inch of Uruha was rubbing against Kai, chest sliding on chest, nipples brushing against one another’s skin, bellies pressed together, thighs brushing . . .

And hard cock on hard cock. They rubbed against one another, caressing every inch, the heads both dripping small amounts of precome, proving just enough lubricant to make it all more pleasurable.

Kai bucked his hips, rubbing as hard against Uurha as Uruha rubbed against him. Their breathing got heavier, their voices turned to ragged moans, stifled only when they kissed each other, hard. Their movements began faster, almost frantic . . .

And finally, Kai arched off the bed, letting out a full-throated cry as his body was wracked with the most intense ecstasy he’d ever felt, an orgasm so forceful that he thought the whole bed was shaking. And he heard Uruha cry out as well, and felt him thrust hard against him . . . there was hot fluid spurting onto his skin, something else he had never felt, and it was glorious.

Uruha fell forward, and the two men wrapped their arms around each other, kissing gently. Kai had never felt so close to anyone in his entire life.

“Mmmm,” Uruha murmured. “You’re unreal, you know that?”

“Not as unreal as you,” Kai said, reaching up and stroking Uruha’s hair, gently. “Uruha . . . I’m so glad I came here . . .”

“I’m glad you came here, too,” Uruha murmured. “So, so glad . .”

The two of them started to drift off, arms wrapped securely around each other, not wanting to let go . . .

And Kai had completely forgotten than when the clock struck midnight, his seven days would be over.

* * *

He was awakened in the middle of the night by a sharp, stabbing pain which made him sit bolt upright. Uruha was still lying next to him, sleeping peacefully. What was it? He hadn’t felt anything like it since . . .

Since he first came on shore. One week ago.

No, Kai thought. No, please don’t let it be that, don’t let me be changing back, I need to stay with him just a little longer . . .

He looked down at his hands, and saw that the webbing was already starting to appear between his fingers. Pushing the covers back revealed that scales were starting to appear on his legs.

One week, the Elder had said, no more. Return to the ocean, or you will die.

And the pain was getting worse. The scales were getting thicker on his legs. Pretty soon, they would probably form into a tail again, and then . . .

He would not only lose his life, but Uruha would know his secret. He didn’t want the other man waking up with a dead merfolk in his bed.

He had to leave while he still could. He bent over, giving the other man one last, soft kiss. Uruha stirred a little, but didn’t awaken.

And then, Kai got out of bed and went outside, not bothering to get dressed. He took off for the harbor, running fast as he could, amazed at how far he had come in a week, from not being able to use these legs at all to being able to move like the wind.

Fortunately, nobody was there to see him. Good thing, because his legs were now completely covered with green scales, the feet starting to take on the tail shape again . . . which would have drawn more attention than his naked cock.

He reached the harbor and dove into the water, using his arms to propel himself forward once he was under the surface. He could breathe right away – his gills were reforming, if not back again entirely. He cleared the city, started heading out for the open water . . .

And a wave of pain hit him that was so sharp and intense that he blacked out, just like he did when he arrived. He was left lying limp in the water, the waves softly buffeting him back toward the mer colony.

* * *

Kazuki, like most residents of Deep Six (and the other Deep settlements, for that matter), looked different from the noblemen who shunned them.

All merfolk were the products of a rapid evolution, of course, of human bodies adapting themselves to life under the sea. It was just that the Deepers, as they called themselves, had evolved just a little further.

Most of them had extra gills, or clawed hands (like Kazuki’s best friend, Byou), or fins on the sides of their faces. (Of course, there was the occasional Deeper who didn’t look that different from the noblemen – like, for instance, Byou’s lover, Manabu. Or, for that matter, Kazuki’s own father. No matter. If they had parents or siblings who had evolved further, they were still considered Deepers.)

Kazuki had spiny appendages on his face. Not big ones, but they were definitely there – over one eye, and around his mouth. He and Aoi had learned to work around them while kissing. When they weren’t kissing, or Kazuki wasn't eating, he wore a mask made of a large, hollowed-out shell over the lower part of his face – less to hide himself than to protect passing creatures from bumping into him. He also had one hand that had a sort of mottled, lizardlike appearance – which Aoi called his “hand with personality.”

Thus, he cut a rather extraordinary-looking figure when swimming next to his aristocratic lover, as he was currently doing. They were just sort of randomly wandering around today, headed in the general direction of the Drylanders’ city, but not really going anywhere.

“He really did go to the surface?” Kazuki said.

“Been there for about a week now,” Aoi said. “So he should be back any day.”

“He’s got guts,” Kazuki said, shaking his head. “That’s not easy. There’s a lot of risk involved – any of the Drylanders could see you when you’re changing. Plus, it hurts. A lot.”

Aoi looked at him. “How do you know so much?”

“My father did that,” Kazuki said. “A long time ago. He really doesn’t talk about it much, he just says it was something that happened when he was young and crazy. But, yeah – he said he doesn’t really regret it, either.”

“Remind me to ask him about it,” Aoi said. “Your father seems like a cool guy.” (Well, he did have misgivings about Kazuki’s relationship with a nobleman, but at least he wasn’t flat-out disapproving, like Aoi’s family. Like he cared about that.)

“You can come see us later on,” Kazuki said. “We really don’t have anything . . .” He paused, frowning. There was a strange shadow over them. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” Aoi didn’t really notice what Kazuki was talking about.

“That.” Kazuki pointed above their heads. “Looks like an animal that’s dead in the water.”

Aoi began to swim upward, frowning. Kazuki was right. There was something up there, all right. Or, rather . . . someone.

“That’s not an animal,” he said. “That’s a merfolk. Oh, shit.” He headed toward the mass in the water, rapidly, Kazuki following him.

Hopefully, they could rescue whoever-it-was, and they weren’t too late.

* * *

Uruha rolled over when he woke up, reaching beside him, feeling for Kai. Maybe there would be time for a quick round two before they took the boat out.

Instead, he felt nothing.

He sat up, blinking. Was he in the bathroom? No, the door was open. And there weren’t many places in this shack where he could be hiding.

Uruha jumped out of bed, reaching for his clothes. Did he go to the boat by himself? Or maybe he’d gone to see Reita and Ruki? Or to explore the town?

But he wasn’t at the dock, wasn’t with his partners (Uruha told them he wouldn’t be going out until he located Kai, and Ruki said, “I wouldn’t expect you to”), wasn’t in the merchant area . . . Uruha tried going to the other residential districts, to places where he hadn’t been with Kai yet. Except he wasn’t there, either.

He even went as far as the other end of the colony, where the huge glass and metal works building was (at least huge by the standards of this place). Nothing. No sign of him.

He’d left. He’d taken off without saying goodbye.

He knew something like this might happen. When Kai first arrived, Uruha had assumed that whenever he got his voice back, he’d hitch a ride with a trade boat. But that was before . . . last night.

Uruha headed back to his own place, heart and steps heavy. When he opened the door, it seemed even emptier than it had right after his mother passed away. He slammed the door behind him . . . and the box she’d given him on her deathbed, the one containing the “very important letter,” jumped off the shelf and landed on the floor. The latch cracked, and the box popped open.

He just stood there, staring at it. What had just happened? Was his mother trying to tell him something from beyond? Was she saying that now was the time to read this?

Uruha sat down on the floor, picked up the yellowed paper (as all paper was yellowish here, given that it was a mixture of long-recycled paper and sea plant fibers) and began to read:

 

My Dear, Precious Son,

 

If you are reading this, that means that I am gone. Please keep our business safe and prosperous. I have every faith that you and your two friends will do well with it.

I need to tell you about a secret I concealed from you during my lifetime, one which I only feel comfortable sharing with you now. It concerns your father. You’ve probably guessed that he was a Wanderer, a stranger who passed through our town temporarily. But he was more than that.

One day, not too long after I started my business, I found a strange man lying on the shore. He was wearing no clothes, and he couldn’t speak. I took him back to my place and cared for him for a week, and I grew attached to him, even though he said nothing . . .

 

Uruha swallowed hard. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, it was identical to him and Kai. He kept reading.

 

The last day, he got his voice back, and he told me the most extraordinary thing. He said his name was Urashima, and he was a merfolk – he came from his undersea home to find out what our world was like. He also said he had only seven days on land, that if he didn’t return to the sea, he’d die. And that night, you were conceived. Yes, Uruha, your father was a merfolk.

 

Uruha fell back to the floor, the hand holding the paper draped across his forehead, trying to process it all. Merfolk? He’d heard about them in songs and stories. He thought he’d glimpsed them from his boat – but figured it was his imagination.

He thought about how identical his own story was to his mother’s – Kai not being able to talk, the disappearance after seven days. And he’d been reluctant to talk about himself, hadn’t he?

The evidence was there. Kai was like his father. No wonder he knew the best places to fish – he fucking LIVED THERE, among the fish.

He brought the paper back to his face – there was still more to read.

 

Before we made love that night, however, I asked him, out of curiosity, if there were half-human half-merfolk hybrids. He said he knew of some. They could choose to live on land full-time, but if they went into the ocean, and stayed under long enough, they could turn into a merfolk for a week. Just a week, and then they’d have to go back to land for at least a week.

And that is the ability you have, my dearest child. If you so choose, you can go to the ocean, go underwater and become a merfolk for a week. You can go deep in the ocean and gather types of fish and plants our nets can’t reach. Think of it – think of the advantage you could have. Just don’t breathe a word to anyone – except maybe your partners – because others would think the advantage unfair.

 

Uruha flung the paper away from him like it was on fire, scrambling to his feet. He took off for the harbor like a shot, banging the door behind him. The hell with an unfair advantage to fishing – he was going to find Kai. He couldn’t have gone very far.

He paused behind the same shed where, ironically, he’d found Kai, stripped his clothes off, and dove into the water. More irony - if Kai hadn’t saved him that day, he wouldn’t have died - just turned into a merfolk. He probably would have ended up meeting Kai in his own environment.

He began to swim out to the ocean, going deeper, deeper than he’d ever swam before (yes, it would only happen when he was completely submerged, right? Not just swimming on the surface?), wondering what was going to happen, feeling his lungs start to ache for air . . .

And then, a hideous pain seized him, like a sword passing through his body. He tried to turn around, to swim back upward, but another pain hit, and he blacked out.

* * *

Kai awoke slowly. He reached next to him, looking for Uruha . . .

But he wasn’t there. And neither was the air that had been around him. He was surrounded by cool, damp resistance, and lying on a flat rock.

“You’re awake,” said a familiar voice above him. “You scared us for a moment.”

Kai looked up, and saw Aoi and Kazuki hovering above him. He looked down, and saw his all-too-familiar tail.

It was over. He was back in his own world, in his proper form. Dammit.

“Were you really up there?” Kazuki said. “Up on the shore for a week, I mean?”

Kai nodded, slowly.

“Wow,” Kazuki said. “That’s fabulous! What was it like?”

Kai closed his eyes, remembering Uruha’s smile, Uruha’s kiss . . .

“Wonderful,” he said.

“Your old man is furious, by the way,” Aoi said. “He thinks you just took off and are wandering around the ocean. He said he’s ready to make one of your sisters his heir instead of you.”

“Let him,” Kai murmured. He had no interest whatsoever in being shogun. He never had. He just wanted to find a way to get up there again. He needed to track down the Elder, and ask him if he could keep going up there – didn’t the old guy say he’d done it more than once?

He had to find Uruha again. Maybe this time, he should tell him the truth.

There was a change in the light and shadow around them, as if something were obstructing the sun’s rays through the water. Kazuki looked up, frowning. “What is this, official people-floating-in-the-water day?”

“There’s someone else up there?” Aoi looked where Kazuki had – and saw another merfolk, just hanging limp in the water, apparently unconscious. “Oh, hell, there is!” He grabbed Kazuki, and the two swam upward, rapidly.

“This one doesn’t look familiar,” Kazuki said as they approached him. “Maybe he’s from another settlement?”

“Got to be,” Aoi said. “Probably exhausted himself swimming all the way here.” He smiled at Kazuki. “Nice to know we’re so entertaining that people will kill themselves to get to us.”

They grabbed the newcomer under the arms, as they had done to Kai, and guided him down to the same flat rock, laying him down next to the prince. “We brought you company,” Aoi said.

Kai sat up, and his jaw dropped open. He was hallucinating. That was the only explanation. He was projecting what he wanted to see onto the reality around him. There was no way in hell there could be a merfolk who looked just like Uruha.

* * *

Uruha stirred, groaning. What had happened? At least he wasn’t dead. He remembered going into the water to look for Kai, and then . . .

He was still in the water. More remarkable than that, he was BREATHING water. He sat up, slowly, looking at the lower part of his body. Oh, yes – there was a fish tail there, a shiny aquamarine.

Incredible. It was like his mother had said – he was a merfolk for a week.

“Don’t sit up too fast,” said a voice above him. Uruha looked up, and saw two other merfolk, one with a mask over his face. “You might faint again. What happened, anyway?”

Uruha flopped back to the rock. “I’m . . . I’m visiting,” he said. “I went into the water, and then . . .”

And then, he caught sight of the other merfolk hovering over him, and he nearly blacked out again. There was no way. No way at ALL. How could he be this lucky, this fast?

“Kai,” he said, softly.

“Uruha?” Kai said. “Is it really you?”

“Yes,” Uruha said, and despite the warnings of the other two, he sat up again. “Yes, it is. Kai, I came down here looking for you. . .”

“But how?” Kai said. “You’re a Drylander! You have legs! How can you be a merfolk?”

“My father was one,” Uruha said, wrapping his arms around the other man. “I found that out this morning – I read a letter from my mother. He stayed in our colony for a week, just like you did, and his name was Urashima . . .”

“Urashima?” Kazuki said. “But that’s my father’s name!”

Aoi clapped him on the back. “Well, you wanted to know what your father did on land, didn’t you? Now you know. Meet your brother!”

“You’re Urashima’s son, too?” Uruha looked up at the one with the mask.

“Kazuki,” he said. “My name is Kazuki. And this is Aoi, he’s my boyfriend. I can’t believe this! I have to take you to where we live to meet everyone! My father – our father – will be thrilled. And then you can meet my friends, Byou and Manabu and Jin and . . .”

“Whoa, there,” Aoi said, squeezing his shoulder. “Shouldn’t we give Kai and Uruha some time alone together first? They obviously formed a bond when they were on shore. Let’s let them revive it.” He tugged Kazuki’s hand, leading him away. “We’ll get some alone time of our own in the meantime.”

“I’ll come back later, okay?” Kazuki called over his shoulder.

Once they were gone, Kai embraced Uruha and kissed him. The kisses were different in the ocean – cooler, wetter. But they were still delicious. Because this was still Uruha.

“I can’t believe this,” Kai said. “I can’t believe it’s really happening.”

“I can’t, either.” Uruha grasped his hand. “Maybe that’s why we felt drawn to each other. Because we both knew we were alike.” Both between two worlds, Drylander and merfolk, both longing for something more . . .

“How long do you have?” Kai said.

“One week, same as you. And then I have to go back to land for a week. But then, I can come back. And I intend to – for as long as we want to be with each other.” And he harbored a silent hope that this attraction would grow into something deeper and turn into a forever.

“Your business . . .” Kai said.

“I’m going to harvest deep-sea plants and fish while I’m down here,” Uruha said. “They’re worth so much that we’ll be able to barter for anything – it’ll even increase our trade value with other settlements.”

Kai hugged him close. This was just like Uruha. He was going to make this work for him every way he could.

“If only I could go to the surface with you . . .” he said.

“You can,” said a voice above them – causing both of them to jump and yelp. There was the Elder, hovering above them.

“Where did you come from?” Kai said.

“Been here all along, listening,” the ancient merfolk said. “I’m good at that, you know.”

“How much did you hear?” Uruha said.

“Enough to know you’re one lucky boy,” the Elder said, pointing to Kai. “Congratulations, I hope it works out.”

“Hey!” Kai said.

“I just gave you a compliment, you know,” the Elder snorted. “You should take it. But, yes, you can make return visits to the shore. Can’t go up there all the time, like he can, ‘cause you’re pureblood merfolk. But once every month? Oh, yeah, you can go up there for visits. One week, same as before. Voice thing will get easier, too, once your body is used to it.”

“So why don’t more people do that?” Kai said.

“They don’t know about it,” the Elder said. “And I ain’t gonna tell them. Think I share this stuff with just anyone?”

Uruha frowned. “Kai . . . who is this guy, anyway?”

Kai hugged him. “A friend. And the one who made it possible for us to meet.”

“You better believe it,” the Elder said. “Well, I’m off. Gonna go to the palace. Your father is very entertaining when he’s in a permanent snit.” He waved, and he was gone.

Kai hugged Uruha. “Where were we?” he said. 

“Talking about us going back and forth.” Uruha said.

“Yes. Can I be the fourth partner in your business? Because I don’t think the prince thing is working out for me. I can help you harvest the deep sea stuff.”

“Of course you can,” Uruha said. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining this to the other two. Well, he’d just let them see him in mer form, and then they’d buy it. They certainly wouldn’t mind him shuffling between worlds if they were the most prosperous fishing company in the settlement.

“Good,” Kai said. He kissed Uruha. “Is this what a happily ever after feels like?”

“I hope so,” Uruha said, squeezing his hand. “I hope so.”

Meanwhile, the Elder swam away, chuckling to himself. Mission accomplished. He’d gotten tired of seeing the damn prince mope around, and he knew very well that his grandson, Urashima, had fathered a child on shore. It was a small thing to help them get together.

The prince gained the shore and a lover, the lover gained the prince and a new family. And he gained endless entertainment from a cranky king. Everyone came out a winner in the end.

* * *

EPILOGUE

Uruha’s business did, indeed, prosper once he began bringing the deep sea materials back to shore. (And, yes, Ruki and Reita were a bit freaked out at first to find they had a half-merfolk partner. But they accepted it quickly – this was still their lifelong best friend. Just with a tail.)

In fact, it improved trade with other colonies to the point where their settlement could finally have a true economy. People began using money again, and bartering was phased out. They were even able to afford the most prized goods of all – wheat and rice from the one settlement that still had enough land mass for agriculture. Noodles and rice bowls appeared for the first time in centuries.

Nobody questioned Uruha’s methods for harvesting these prized goods, and he never told. Nor did anyone question the strange fourth partner in the business who came to the colony only one week a month (and wasn’t seen all that much during that week, save for performances and dances. That was Uruha’s week off from fishing, and he and Kai spent most of it in bed. They had discovered that sex was a lot more fun on dry land).

When he was underwater, Uruha spent time with his new family, getting to know his father, his brother and his brother’s friends. After the loneliness of losing his only relative, it was a wonderful thing to have kinfolk again. Aoi and Kazuki even came up on land themselves a couple of times (Kazuki’s facial appendages were assumed by the Drylanders to be piercings), during the one week a month when Kai and Uruha were separated – which helped ease Uruha’s loneliness.

Kai’s father, as Aoi predicted, disowned Kai as his heir, and Kai couldn’t be happier. He knew his sister was better equipped to handle sea business anyway. He went to the palace as little as possible, making a home with Uruha in a sea cave between the settlements of the aristocrats and the Deep colonies – very much like the cave where he’d once hoarded artifacts from the land.

And the two built a life together, deeply in love and very happy. They did, indeed, know what a happy ending felt like.

They were part of each other’s world, and had built a special world all their own.


End file.
